Oil spills from petroleum transporting marine vessels cause tremendous environmental damage. The Andrea Dorea oil spill in the English Channel in the 1970's killed wildlife in the hundreds of thousands, created tremendous hardship for fishermen in the damaged area and fouled the beaches of France and England for at least ten years.
Recently, the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker owned by Exxon Corporation, ran aground on a reef in the Gulf of Alaska and spilled tens of millions of gallons of crude oil into the ocean with staggering loss of wildlife and marine life such as sea birds, sea otters, seals, salmon and shellfish. It is estimated that it will take years before the damage is rectified. Efforts by Exxon to contain the spill and clean up the oil were pitiful. After much effort, only about 10,000 barrels of crude were recovered.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,265, granted Jul. 19, 1983, discloses a suction dredger that is provided with sweeping arms at the side of the vessel. The arms can be placed at an angle with respect to the body of the vessel and are provided with suction apparatus to suck away the upper layer of the water collected in front of the sweeping arms. The water is pumped into the hold of the vessel so that the hold optionally can be used for storing dredging material or oil respectively. Apparatus connects the sweeping arms to the vessel and moves the arms from an inward storage position into an outboard operative position and vice versa. The sweeping arms are in a tilted position when inboard and if necessary displaceable in the longitudinal direction of the vessel along its deck so that in the case of a suction dredger the normal dredging apparatus performs its function without being hampered by the sweeping arms. The apparatus is constructed so that the sweeping arms can be applied to any type of vessel.